Hops & Vaults
TUESDAY MAY 14, 2024
BROUWERIJ DE RANKE
De Ranke was launched in the mid-90’s as a part-time project in a borrowed brewery. Here former home brewer Nino Bacelle spent his weekends attempting to replicate the lost and seemingly forgotten hoppy blond beers of his youth. After a great deal of trial and error, perfection was certainly achieved with the now-legendary flagship XX Bitter, which was immediately hailed as the hoppiest beer in Belgium at a time when the country was associated primarily with sour or extra-strong beers. XX Bitter’s hard-earned success then led to a wider range of styles, further international acclaim among aficionados, and finally, in 2005, the much-anticipated opening of Nino’s own brewery.
Cult favorites from the start, De Ranke is today one of Belgium’s most respected and established small breweries, and its signature ales continue to be regarded as among the very finest in the world.
poperinge / belhop
The small Flemish city of Poperinge is considered the hops capital of Belgium. Its Hop Museum is housed in the buildings of the former Stadsschaal (“City Scale”) where, until the 1960’s, hops were weighed, inspected and processed. Here the story of hop growing and its importance to the brewing industry is thoroughly explained via an impressive collection of historical working implements and media.
At Belhop just outside Poperinge center, fifth-generation hop-grower Bart Boeraeve combines the craftsmanship and know-how of his predecessors with a modern commitment to sustainability. His farm’s eight hectares produce both bittering and aroma varieties, and his house aperitif beer, Saison Lokaal, is brewed solely with homegrown hops.
brouwerij kazematten
Launched in 2013 as a joint venture by Sint-Bernardus and Rodenbach, Kazematten (the “Casemates”) is informally regarded as the city brewery of Ypres. The portion of fortifying walls enclosing it was built in 1682 and constituted an indelible part of the city’s history through the 20th century, when it served as an English army headquarters in the First World War. The Brits’ wartime newspaper The Wipers Times today lends its name to the brewery’s flagship beers, Wipers Times Blond, Dubbel and Tripel, while a recreation of Sint-Bernardus’ famous cave-matured Grottenbier is offered under the new name Grotten Santé.
Also built right into the formidable city walls just a few hundred yards from the Kazematten brewery is its own atmospheric casemates restaurant, identified separately by its taking of the French name Brasserie Kazematten. The restaurant and its cavernous dining hall is in fact part of a five-room complex that also includes a meeting room, a visitors’ center and a special entrance leading to a start point of the city wall walking tour.
ypres / the last post
A major urban center in medieval times, Ypres (in Flemish, Ieper) rivaled Bruges for local dominance. But the city’s strategic location in West Flanders resulted in its siege by the English in 1383, followed by centuries of decline and further siege by the French in the 17th century. During World War I, its ill-fated position led to total destruction of the old city, which fortunately was rebuilt in the original style. Since 1928, Ypres has honored the nearly 90,000 unknown British and Commonwealth soldiers who died there with a nightly, solemn bugle call at one of its old town gates.
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